Hathaway Closes Maine Factory, Last Major U.S. Shirt Plant

Published: October 20, 2002

WATERVILLE, Me., Oct. 19—
The sewing machines have stopped at the nation's last major shirt factory, which supplied shirts for Union soldiers in the Civil War.

Its shirts were later promoted in a classic advertising campaign featuring a man with an eye patch.

Like Arrow and Van Heusen, C. F. Hathaway shirts will live on, but they will no longer carry the ''Made in the USA'' label. The plant here closed on Friday.

After 165 years of making shirts in Maine, the factory kept only a few workers to box and fold the shirts. Distribution of the remaining shirts will keep 25 people employed through December, but the closing will put 235 people out of work.

A few workers lingered in the parking lot on Friday to say their goodbyes.

''It's losing your family,'' said Sherry Laliberty, 59, who worked in the plant for 35 years. ''My God, we've been through divorces and deaths and children growing up and grandchildren. We've been though everything in there, and we are family.''

The factory's demise became inevitable after it failed to win a crucial contract to make shirts for the Air Force and the nonprofit Made in the USA Foundation could not line up investors to take over the plant.

''A lot of people saw the writing on the wall five or six years ago,'' said Ron Fingel, the Waterville city administrator. ''It was expected for so long it wasn't like a shoe dropping in a quiet room.''

Hathaway began production in 1837. Windsong Allegiance Group, which operated the factory, was willing to donate the equipment to anyone with the financial backing to keep it going, but nothing worked out, said Colette Sipperly, spokeswoman for the company.

Hathaway is among a growing number of apparel and shoe companies that have moved production out of the country. G.H. Bass and Cole Haan closed their Maine shoe factories in 1998 and 1999, while the Dexter shoe plant closed last year, putting 475 people out of work.

Hathaway was on the verge of closing five years ago. A local investment group financed a bailout. It was again on the verge of collapse last fall when Windsong bought the company. Less than six months later, Windsong announced plans to close the factory in June. A last-minute $5 million contract from Wal-Mart kept it running.

Donald Sappington, president of Hathaway, said it was hard to compete when products can be made elsewhere at vastly lower cost.

The advertisements featuring a man with an eye patch are imprinted in the memories of many men who also remember fathers and grandfathers who wore Hathaway shirts.

Richard Hewes, who bought 10 shirts from the factory store on Friday, recalled that his grandfather gave him Hathaway shirts. Mr. Hewes said he had been wearing them since 1975.

''I'm not saying it's a family tradition,'' said Mr. Hewes, a lawyer in Augusta. ''It's just a good quality shirt.''

Windsong, a Westport, Conn., company, has already started a Hathaway sportswear line made abroad, and it will line up plants to continue the Hathaway label for men's shirts, Ms. Sipperly said.

''Basically we think the future looks bright because it's a great brand and there's great recognition,'' she said.

The company may even bring back the man-with-the-eye patch advertising.

''It really needs to be reintroduced to a new generation,'' Ms. Sipperly said.